Information management system by means of portable appliances via wire or wireless Internet and the method for the same

ABSTRACT

The present invention is directed to an information management system. The information management system has a web server  110  and a database server  120 . The database server  120  includes a business card information database  121 , a relation database  122  and a user database  123 . Therefore, by the present invention, a user distributes the business card information to designated receivers and the receiver transfers the business card information to the selected senders from the identified senders.

This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. §371 of PCTInternational Application No. PCT/KR01/00570 which has an Internationalfiling date of Apr. 4, 2001, which designated the United States ofAmerica.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an information management system whichprovides a great convenience and availability for its user. Specially,the present invention makes it possible to distribute business cardinformation by only one input of the information and also to sendinformation including the business card information to multiple businesscard providers at once.

BACKGROUND

Nowadays, the Internet technology rapidly progress and enable thewireless connection as well as the wired connection between Internetmedia. Accordingly, mobile communication equipments such as mobilephones, PDAs (Personal Data Assistant), Pagers have a wireless Internetbrowser to wirelessly connect with the Internet.

For instance, mobile phones equipped with the wireless Internet browsercan access the Internet and acquire information from it.

The advance of communication technologies including the Internet enhancethe convenience of their users. For instance, it is possible to transferpersonal or other information via E-mail or from one mobilecommunication equipment to other mobile communication equipment. Now,the SMS (Short Message Service) is commercialized to send short messagesbetween the mobile communication equipments.

Traditionally, a business card is used to give an information, That is,a personal information is recognized through the card and givesinformation by means of the recognized information. For instance, oneuses a phone number on the received business card to call the providerof the card and send information by voice. Or one can send informationby E-mail, the E-mail address being on the business card. Or one cansend information by the SMS, the mobile phone number being on thebusiness card.

To make the business card available, it should be printed and deliveredto the receiver physically and the receiver should keep storage of itfor later use. And, even when sending the same information to multiplebusiness card providers, the information should be sent separately. Forinstance, one received business cards form three men of a, b and c,respectively and wants to send the same information to these three menvia the SMS, he should input three mobile phone numbers of them, thesame three information and send them, respectively.

Also, new business cards should be received again or the information onthe business cards should be rewritten if the information of theprovider are changed. For instance, the business card should be replacedwith the newly received card or record to the change should be made onthe card.

Furthermore, there is a need to make an additional record with respectto the card provider. For instance, when a business card is provided inconnection with a great deal, matters related to the deal should berecorded in relation to the provided business card.

Therefore, it is desirable if one can distribute his or her personalinformation by use of one business card, easily keep storage ofinformation and send information to multiple card providers at once.Further, it is desirable if renewal of information is easily made whenthe information of business card is changed and records to theinformation of business card provider is easily managed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention satisfies the above desires. The purpose of thepresent invention is to provide an information management system and themethod for the same capable of distributing business card information byonly one input of the information, easily storing the information andsend information including the business card information to multiplebusiness card providers at once.

Another purpose of the present invention is to provide an informationmanagement system and the method for the same capable of automaticallyrenewing the business card information when the information of thebusiness card provider is changed, informing the card receiver of thechange of the information to make the receiver renew the information,and easily managing necessary records in relation to the business cardprovider.

According to the present invention, it is possible to distributebusiness card information to multiple people by only one input of theinformation and easily store the information.

Further, according to the present invention, a receiver of the businesscard information sends information to the original business cardinformation senders at once. In connection with that, the presentinvention put the business card information providers together intogroups and send information to a group at once. Also, the receiver ofthe business card information can automatically respond to the sender.

Furthermore, the present invention transfers renewed business cardinformation when the business card information of the original senderchanges. The present invention also allows facts necessary to berecorded in connection with the particular sender of the business cardinformation to be easily recorded and managed.

Furthermore, the present invention transfers the business cardinformation to a person who does not input his or her business cardinformation and let the person to read the transferred business cardinformation when he or she inputs his or her business card information.

The information management system according to the present inventioncomprises a web server connected to mobile communication equipments orcomputers via the Internet and a database server connected to the webserver. The database server includes a business card informationdatabase storing business card information of each user inputted bymeans of the mobile communication equipments or computers, a relationdatabase storing relation of a sender and a receiver when a userdesignates a specific user and orders the business card information anda user database storing a business card information sender in respect ofeach receiver by identifying the sender to a receiver from the relationdatabase. Therefore, a user who inputted the business card informationdistributes the business card information to designated receivers fromusers and the receiver identifies the senders of the business cardinformation from the user database and transfers the business cardinformation to the selected senders from the identified senders.

According to the receiver's request, the information management systemidentifies the sender of the business card information, extracts thesender's business card information from the business card informationdatabase and browses the sender's business card information on themobile communication equipment or computer of the receiver.

Also, the receiver selects a reversed receiver to whom the receiverwants to send the business card information from the browsed senders.

The database server further includes non user receiver database storinga receiver information and a record of a sender's sending of thebusiness card information if the receiver is not one who has stored hisor her business card information on the business card informationdatabase.

The information management system further includes an informationtransferring means to transfer information other than the business cardinformation. For instance, the information transferring means may be aE-mail server or SMS connection means connected to means of send SMS.

An information managing method of the present invention comprises abusiness card information storage step where a user inputs the businesscard information by means of mobile communication equipments orcomputers via the internet and the business card information are stored;a relation establishment step where a relation of sender and receiver isstored when the user designates specific user to send the business cardinformation; a business card sender information storage step where abusiness card sender information in respect of each receiver is stored,the sender to the receiver being identified from the stored relation ofsender and receiver; a business card information transfer step where asender is identified from the stored business card sender informationand the business card information of the sender is extracted from thestored business card information and the extracted sender's businesscard information is transferred to the receiver when the receiverrequests; a reversed receiver selection step where the user of thereceiver identifies the senders from the transferred business cardinformation of the sender and selects receivers from them; and areversed information transfer step where the receiver transfersinformation including the business card information to the selectedreversed receivers at once.

At this time, transfer step may be to browse the sender's business cardinformation on the receiver's mobile communication equipments orcomputers. Also the reversed receiver selection step may be to selectfrom the senders browsed on the receiver's mobile communicationequipments or computers.

Also, the method further includes a group formation and storage stepwhere when the sender's business card information is transferred to thereceiver by the business card information transfer step, the senders aregrouped and stored according to the groups and the reversed receiverselection step includes selectively designates the reversed receiverfrom the groups.

The business card information storage step may include step of selectionautomatic response so that when the business card information is sent tothe receiver by the business card information transfer step, the senderautomatically become the reversed receiver and the receiver's businesscard information is transferred to the original sender of the reversedreceiver if the receiver selected automatic response.

The reversed information transfer step the information besides thebusiness card information may be accomplished by one of informationtransferring means among E-mail transfer service, SMS service ormessenger service.

Also the reversed information transfer step the information besides thebusiness card information is accomplished by one of informationtransferring means among E-mail transfer service, SMS service ormessenger service.

Further, the business card information is accomplished by sender's inputof the receiver's phone number and number or code corresponding to orderof sending the business card information to a mobile phone which doesnot essentially have the Internet browser.

The present invention provides an information management systemcomprising a web server connected to mobile communication equipments orcomputers via the Internet and a database server including a businesscard information database storing business card information of each userinputted by means of the mobile communication equipments or computers,whereby the web server receives information necessary to transfer thebusiness card information from a mobile phone which does not essentiallyhave the Internet browser and send the business card information to thedesignated receiver. At this case, the information management systemfurther includes an information transferring means to transferinformation other than the business card information. The informationtransferring means is a SMS connection means provided in the web server.

BRIEF EXPLNATION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view showing the configuration of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view showing a flow chart of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the process of transferring informationbesides business card information to reversed receivers;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the process of forming groups andreversely transferring information to a member of the group;

FIG. 5 is a view showing tables to illustrate the relation between thebusiness card information database, the relation database and the userdatabase.

FIG. 6 is a flow cart showing procedure transferring business cardinformation to a person who does not input his or her business cardinformation;

FIG. 7 is a view showing procedure of automatic response;

FIG. 8 is a view showing procedure transferring business cardinformation not through the Internet;

FIG. 9 is a view showing procedure of processing records in connectionwith a business card information provider;

FIG. 10 is a view showing procedure of transferring the changed businesscard information when business card information of a sender changes;

FIG. 11 is a view showing procedure of breaking relation when receiverdoes not want to keep the relation with a sender; and

FIG. 12 is a view showing procedure of processing a selective receipt.

FIG. 13 is a view showing an interface screen of the mobilecommunication equipments or computers connected to the informationmanagement system of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Now, the present invention will be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view showing the configuration of the present invention.

Firstly, the information management system 10 includes a web server 110connected to the Internet 20. Also, the information management systemincludes a database server 120 for managing information of businesscard. Further, the information management system 10 includes aninformation transferring means 130 which transfers information.

The information transferring means 130 may be a mail server for E-mailsuch as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Server) server.

The information transferring means 130 may be a SMS connection meansprovided in the web server 110. That is, the web server 110 may connectto SMSC (SMS Center) 60 of a mobile telecommunication service companywhich provides SMS service to a separate mobile communication equipmentby means of mobile telecommunication network and send short messages tothe mobile communication equipment. In this case, the web server isdirectly connected to the SMSC 60 or indirectly connected to the SMSC 60through an intermediary SMS service agent.

The information transferring means 130 may be a messenger provided inthe web server 110. For instance, the commercialized MSN Messengerservice is available.

The information transferring means 130 may be a web server 130 itselfand directly browse information into the mobile communication equipmentor computer connected to it by means of the Internet 20.

Users of the information management system 10 can access to theinformation management system 10 through mobile communication equipments41 a, 41 b, . . . , 41 n or computers 31 a, . . . , 31 n. When usersaccess to the information management system 10 by means of mobilecommunication equipments 41 a, 41 b, . . . , 41 n, the mobilecommunication equipments are connected to the Internet 20 connected tothe web server 110 of the information management system 10 via themobile telecommunication network 50 and wap gateway 55.

When users access to the information management system 10 by means ofcomputers 31 a, . . . , 31 n, the computers are connected to theInternet 20 which is connected with the web server 110 of theinformation management system 10.

The mobile communication equipments 41 a, 41 b, . . . , 41 n and thecomputers 31 a, . . . , 31 n have a wap browser and a browser for thewired Internet, the browsers which request information transferring tothe web server 110 of the information management system 10 and browsethe transferred information from the web server 110.

The database server 120 for managing information of business card in theinformation management system 10 include a business card informationdatabase 121, a relation database 122 and a user database 123. Thebusiness card information database 121 stores individual user's businesscard information inputted via the web server 110 from the mobilecommunication equipments 41 a, 41 b, . . . , 41 n or the computers 31 a,. . . , 31 n. The relation database 122 stores relation of a sender anda receiver when one user designates a particular user and orders a sendof his or her business card information to the designated user. The userdatabase 123 stores information of business card information sender inconnection with an individual user. In respect of an individual user ofthe receiver, a sender of business card information is recognized fromthe relation database 122 and the sender information is stored in theuser database 123.

Therefore, users who inputted his or her business card information candesignate receivers and distribute the business card information to thereceivers by sending the business card information stored in thebusiness card information database 121 to the receivers. Also, users ofthe receivers can identify the senders from the user database 123,selectively designate receivers from the senders and send informationincluding his or her business card information to the designatedreceivers at once.

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of the present invention.

Firstly, users access to the information management system 10 of thepresent invention by means of the mobile communication equipments 41 a,41 b, . . . , 41 n or the computers 31 a, . . . , 31 n and input theirbusiness card information. (Step 210) At this time, the first accesseduser may acquire an ID number and a password from the informationmanagement system 10 and proceed a verification when the user accessesthe information management system 10 thereafter.

The business card information are, for example, such as mobile phonenumber, E-mail address, company phone number, company address, positionand facsimile number. Besides them, the information include usefulinformation which should be informed of. For instance, bank accountnumber is possible, which informs the counterpart where he or she shouldpay. The business card information may be a form of picture, voice ormotion picture.

Then, the business card information are stored in the business cardinformation database 121 of the information management system 10. (Step220) Accordingly, the business card information such as mobile phonenumber, E-mail address, company phone number, company address, position,facsimile number and bank account number, all of which are inputted byusers through the mobile communication equipments 41 a, 41 b, . . . , 41n or the computers 31 a, . . . , 31 n, are stored in the business cardinformation database 121 of the information management system 10. Atthis time, it is possible to designate open to public or close to publicin respect of each piece of business card information and store them.Then, only the information designated open to public are sent toreceiver as described later.

As an example, on the mobile communication equipments or the computers,the items of business card information are browsed as an input windowfrom the information management system 10 and users input each item ofbusiness card information on the browed input window. Then the mobilecommunication equipments or the computers transfer the information tothe information management system 10 and the information managementsystem 10 stores the transferred information on the business cardinformation data base 121. So the steps of 210 and 220 are achieved.

After the business card information in respect of individual user arestored in the business card information database 121, when one userspecifies a particular user and orders send of the business cardinformation to the specified user, between the two users the relation ofa sender and a receiver is formed, and the relation is stored in therelation database 122 (Step 230) For instance, on mobile communicationequipment or computer, those of a user of a sender, the input window foritem by which a receiver is uniquely specified is browsed, and user ofsender can designate a particular receiver by inputting the unique iteminformation of the receiver. The unique item information is thatgenerally one has only one information such as mobile phone number.Also, the browsed view on the mobile communication equipment or computermay have a send button and the click of the button means the order ofthe sending business card information. When a particular receiver isdesignated and the order of sending the business card information ismade by this way, the information management system 10 of the presentinvention recognizes the user accessed to the information managementsystem 10 as a sender and recognizes the user whom the sender designatedas a receiver, and stores the relation of the sender and the receiverbetween them in the relation database 122.

Then, the information management system 10 identifies the sender inrespect of each receiver from the relation of the sender and thereceiver stored in the relation database 122 and stores the senderinformation in respect of individual receiver in the user database 123.(Step 240)

Then, if there is a request from a user of the receiver of the businesscard information, the information management system 10 identifies thesender of the business card information to the user of the receiver fromthe user database 123 and extracts the sender's business cardinformation from the business card information database 121 andtransfers the sender's information to the user of the receiver. (Step250) In this case, the business card information transfer, for example,is to browse the information on the mobile communication equipment orcomputer of individual user. In this case, if some of the business cardinformation are designated whether they are open or close to public,only the information open to public are transferred.

Then, the receiver received the sender's business card informationreversely selectively designates reversed receivers (Original senders)who receive the receiver's information including his or her businesscard information from the senders (Step 260), and send the informationreversely. (Step 270). In this case, the information reverselytransferred to the original sender may be the business card informationof original receiver stored in the business card information database121. This transfer of the information may be to browse the informationon the mobile communication equipment or computers of the reversedreceiver.

When transferring the information besides the business card information,the information transferring means 130 such as SMTP server, messengerserver and SMS connection means is available.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the process of transferring theinformation besides the business card information by means of theinformation transferring means 130 such as SMTP server, messenger serverand SMS connection means to the mobile communication equipments or thecomputers of the selected reversed receivers who were the originalsenders.

Firstly, after the business card information are transferred from theoriginal senders, the reversed receivers are selected from them. (Step310)

Then, information to be sent to the reversed receivers are inputted tothe information transferring means 130. For instance, SMTP server isused, E-mail addresses are inputted to it.

Then, the information transferring means is selected if multiple kind ofthe information transferring means such as SMTP server, messenger serverand SMS connection means are provided in the information managementsystem. (Step 330)

Then, the inputted information are reversely transferred to the selectedoriginal senders. (Step 340)

In selecting a reversed receivers from the original business cardinformation senders (Step 260 of FIG. 2 or Step 310 of FIG. 3), it ispossible to put together some of the original senders into groups andsend the information to the groups. FIG. 4 shows such a process.

Firstly, the business card information of the sender are transferred tothe user of the receiver. (Step 410)

Then, groups are formed and the senders are put to a particular groupand these are stored in the group database (not shown). (Step 420) Thegroup database stores information of business card information sendersin respect of each group.

Then, user of the receiver selects reversed receivers in respect of thegroups who receives the business card information of other information.(Step 430)

Then, the reversed information are transferred to the selected reversedreceivers of the particular groups. (Step 440)

In the above description, the input of the business card information andthe selection of the receivers are accomplished by use of conventionalmeans. Besides, there are many methods to designate the receiver. Forexample, Bar code or color code is available. In this case, theinformation of the business card or the receiver are bar coded or colorcoded. The mobile communication equipments 41 a, 41 b, . . . , 41 n orcomputers 31 a, . . . , 31 n have means for reading the codedinformation such as bar code reader or Charge-coupled device and meansfor decoding the coded information and transfer the decoded informationto the information management system 10.

FIG. 5 shows tables to illustrate the relation between the business cardinformation database 121, the relation database 122 and the userdatabase 123.

Firstly, a business card information table 510 is shown. This is thebusiness card information which a separate user accessed to theinformation management system 10 inputs.

With respect to users named chun hyung, song senung han, hong kil dong,chun u-chi, their phone numbers and the renewal dates are storedcorresponding to ID numbers 001, 002, 003 and 004 as primary key.

This table only shows the phone number as business card information,other information such as company name, the position, and E-mail addressmay be included. Also, in each field of the business card informationitem, whether the value is open to public or close to public may berecorded, therefore, only the field value recorded as open to public istransferred.

Referral number 520 indicates a relation database table. This table isformed when one use designates a receiver and send his or her businesscard information to record the relation of a sender and a receiverbetween them. As shown, it stores the information that ID number 003(that is hong kil dong) sent the business card information to the IDnumber 001 (that is chun hyung) at Mar. 3, 2000. It stores theinformation that ID number 004 (that is chun u-chi) sent the businesscard information to the ID number 001 (that is chun hyung) at Mar. 4,2000. It stores the information that ID number 002 (that is song seunghan) sent the business card information to the ID number 003 (that ishong kil dong) at Mar. 5, 2000. Also, it stores the information that IDnumber 005 sent the business card information to the ID number 003 (thatis hong kil dong) at Mar. 6, 2000.

The renewal date fields in the business card information table 510 andthe relation database table 520 represent the date when the businesscard information is inputted and the date when the relation isestablished, respectively. They are necessary to renew and send thechanged business card information to the receiver when the business cardinformation are changed. It will be described later.

Referring to the relation table 520, the sender information in respectof each receiver are recorded and stored in the user database 123. Auser table 530 is shown.

The table stores the information that the ID numbers of 003 and 004 sentthe business card information in respect of the user of ID number 001(that is chung hyung). Also, it stores the information that the IDnumbers of 002 and 005 sent the business card information in respect ofthe user of ID number 003 (that is hong kil dong).

Accordingly, the information management system 10 of the presentinvention identifies the senders (that is ID number) to the ID number001, chung hyung and extracts the business card information of thesender (the field value of record corresponding to the ID number) andtransfers these information to ID number 001, chung hyung

The present invention allows facts necessary to be recorded inconnection with a sender of the business card information to be easilyrecorded and managed. Specifically, according to the present invention,the facts to be recorded in connection with the sender are inputted tothe information management system 10 by users of the receivers throughthe mobile communication equipments or computers and stored in the userdatabase 123. Accordingly, a user who received the business cardinformation from a sender can record and store necessary facts inconnection with the sender and identify them if necessary. To achievethis, the user database table 530 includes a field in respect of eachrecord of the sender information and the field holds the fact that theuser of the receiver inputs in connection with the sender. For instance,that field value is such as memorial date between the sender and thereceiver or necessary memorandum.

FIG. 9 shows a flow chart processing the records in connection with asender.

Firstly, a business card information is transferred to a user of areceiver. This transfer of the business card information was describedwith reference to steps from 210 to 250 in FIG. 2. (Step 910)

Then, the user of the receiver inputs facts in connection with thesender, the facts being formed as field values on the user database 123.(Step 920) For instance, when the business card information of thesender are transferred to the receiver by browsing the information onthe mobile communication equipment or the computer of the receiver, thebrowsed view may include input windows for facts to be recorded inconnection with the sender. Then, the receiver inputs the necessaryinformation on the input windows and transfers the information to theinformation management system of the present invention 10.

The input of facts in connection with the sender is stored in the userdatabase 123 (Step 930) For instance, in the user database table 530 inFIG. 5, these information are stored as field value with respect to eachrecord.

Then, when the receiver requests, these inputted and stored facts inconnection with the sender are transferred to the receiver. (Step 940)For instance, these may be browsed together with the business cardinformation of the sender.

The information management system 10 of the present invention, whenthere is a change of a business card information of a sender, informsthe individual receiver of the change to renew the senders business cardinformation or automatically renews the sender's business cardinformation for each of the receiver. Further, the informationmanagement system 10 of the present invention allows break of therelation when the receiver wants to break the relation between thesender and the receiver. FIGS. 10 and 11 show such a procedures.

Firstly, with reference to FIG. 10, the procedure of the changedbusiness card information being transferred is explained when thebusiness card information is changed.

The information management system 10 compare the storing date of thebusiness card information recorded on the business card informationdatabase 121 (that is the renewal date of the business card informationdatabase 510 in FIG. 5) with the relation establishment date on therelation database 122 (that is the renewal date of the relation database520 in FIG. 5) to determine which date is later. (Step 1010) If therenewal date on the business card information database 121 is later,this indicates that the sender has changed the business cardinformation.

Accordingly, in this case, the information management system referencesthe receiver information on the relation database 122 and transfers thechanged sender's business card information to the receivers. At thistime, new relation establishment date is recorded. (Step 1020)

If the renewal date on the business card information database is earlierthan the relation establishment date on the relation database, thatmeans no change of the business card information to the sender and,thus, nothing transfers.

According to the present invention, when the business card informationof the sender changes, the receiver can break the relation not toreceive more business card information from the sender. It is describedwith reference to FIG. 11.

Firstly, The information management system 10 compare the storing dateof the business card information recorded on the business cardinformation database 121 (that is the renewal date of the business cardinformation database 510 in FIG. 5) with the relation establishment dateon the relation database 122 (that is the renewal date of the relationdatabase 520 in FIG. 5) to determine which date is later. (Step 1110) Ifthe renewal date on the business card information database 121 is later,this indicates that the sender has changed the business cardinformation.

Then, the information management system 10 ask the receiver whether thereceiver wants to receive the changed business card information (Step1120) For instance, the information management system 10 browses themessage to the receiver's computer.

If the user of the receiver selects the renewal, the changed businesscard information is transferred to the user of the receiver and therelation establishment date on the relation database is renewed. (Step1140)

If the user of the receiver do not want to renew, the informationmanagement system ask whether the user wants the break of the relation.(Step 1150)

When the user selects the break of the relation, the relation betweenthe sender the business information of whom was changed and the receiveris broken. (Step 1160) That is, the relation database 122 records thebreak of the relation. For instance, the user database table 520includes field value regarding the relation break where the break isrecorded as an attribute. Then, the relation is broke on the relationdatabase 122 and if the senders business card information changes nomore ask whether to renew occurs.

If the receiver does not want to break the relation, the relationdatabase is kept and the relation is kept. (Step 1170)

It is possible for the present invention to transfer the business cardinformation to a person who does not input his or her business cardinformation and let the person to read the transferred business cardinformation when he or she inputs his or her business card information.FIG. 6 shows such a procedure.

Firstly, the user who stores his or her business card informationdesignates a receiver and orders the send of the business cardinformation. (Step 610) For instance, by inputting the mobile phonenumber, the receiver is designated.

Then, whether the designated receiver is a user who already stores hisor her business card information is judged. (Step 620) For instance, thedesignated receiver is not the one who already stores his or herbusiness card information if the inputted mobile phone number is not onthe business card information database 121.

If the designated receiver is not the user who already stores his or herbusiness card information, new storage is formed where the receiverdesignation information and the sender information is store. (step 630)Accordingly, the designated receiver who stores his or her business cardinformation later will read the business card information transferred toho or herself.

If the designated receiver is the user who already stores his or herbusiness card information, the relation of the sender and the receiverbetween them is established and is stored on the relation database 122(Step 640), then, the busineess card sender information is stored in theuser database 123. Later, the receiver can identify the sender of thebusiness card information and selectively choose from them to transferinformation.

The information management system 10 of the present invention let thereceiver of the business card information automatically respond to thesender to send back the receiver's business card information. This isshown with reference to FIG. 7.

Firstly, when a user access to the information management system 10 andinputs the user's business card information, the user chooses and inputsthe automatic response. Then, to the user, automatic response isrecorded on the business card information data base 121. (Step 710)

Then, the user who chose the automatic response is designated as areceiver and the business card information is transferred to the user.(Step 720)

Then, the information management system 10 extracts the business cardinformation of the user of the receiver from the business cardinformation database 121 and send back the information to the sender.(step 730)

According to the present invention, a receiver can receive a businesscard information from one who knows the secret number of the receiver.Accordingly, selective information receipt is possible. FIG. 12 showssuch a procedure.

Firstly, a user who inputs his or her business card information caninputs his or her secret number as a business card information (Step1210) The secret number is one field value of the business cardinformation database 121.

Then, when a sender transfers his or her business card information tothe user who stores the secret number, the sender should inputs thesecret number (Step 1220) Preferably, the information management systemrequests the secret number to the sender.

Then, the information management system 10 compares the secret numberthe sender inputs with the secret number stored (Step 1230)

If the two secret numbers are matched, the relation of the sender andthe receiver is established to be stored in the relation database (step1250), and the business card information is transferred. (step 1260)

If the two secret numbers are not matched, no transferring message istransferred to the sender. (step 1240)

FIG. 13 shows interface according to the present invention. Firstly,referral number 71 indicates a view how the sender's business cardinformation stored in the user database 123 is shown. Here, changesignal and buttons of renewal/delete are shown, which are related to thedescription explained with reference to FIG. 11. When the sender'sbusiness card information is changed, the change signal is shown, bywhich the change is informed to the receiver. Pressing the renewalbutton makes the sender's business card information renewed andtransferred to the receiver and pressing the delete button makes thebreak of the relation.

Also, signal of other's information edit is shown, which are related tothe description of records in connection with a sender explained withreference to FIG. 9 When the edit button is pressed, the related recordto the sender is shown as referral numeral 73 where items of menu areshown such as 132 or 152. In the items of menu such as 132 or 152 therelated information to the sender is inputted (Step 920) and theinputted information is stored in the user database. (Step 940)

Further, reference numeral 72 shows the input window of the businesscard information when each of user sends his or her business cardinformation.

When transferring the business card information according to the presentinvention, it is not always necessary for a user to order the send theinformation via the Internet. For instance, when the information istransferred by means of the mobile phone, it is possible to reach theinformation management system by inputting the mobile phone numberwithout Internet interface such as wap interface. Such a procedure isshown in FIG. 8.

Firstly, the business card information of a user is stored in thebusiness card information database 121. (Step 810)

Then, the user designates a receiver by inputting a receiver's phonenumber to the mobile phone and orders the send of the business cardinformation. (Step 820) For instance, if the receiver's mobile phonenumber is 017-xxx-xxxx, this number is inputted so that the receiver isdesignated and press a button (for example # button) indicating the sendorder of the business card information.

Then, a mobile telecommunication service company, the mobiletelecommunication network of which is used by the mobile phone, receivethe order information and transfers it to the information managementsystem 10. (Step 830) Since mobile telecommunication service company canidentify a sender, phone number of a receiver and send order, it cantransfer the above information to the information management system 10.For instance, the above information are made to database, andtransferred to the information management system 10 via the dedicatedline.

Then, the information management system 10 received the information ofthe sender, receiver and send order extracts the sender's business cardinformation from the business card information database 121 andtransfers to the designated receiver. (Step 840)

When orders the send of business card information by means of mobilephone number as described above, it is obvious that the mobile phoneneed not to include the Internet browser.

Specially, if the information management system 10 only does thetransfer of the business card information, the relation database 122 andthe user database 123 are not essential elements thereof. However, inthis case, as explained with reference to FIG. 8, without the Internetinterface, it is possible to transfer the business card information insuch a way that a user inputs a receiver's mobile phone number todesignate the receiver and puts some button to order the send. That is,by means of the mobile communication equipments 41 a, 41 b, . . . , 41 nor computers 31 a, . . . , 31 n which include the Internet browser, thebusiness card information is inputted and stored in the business cardinformation database 121, and by following the procedure of FIG. 8, thebusiness card information can be transferred. In this case, the businesscard information may be divided by its category and the informationbelonging to selected category be transferred. That is, the businesscard information are specified into its categories and are stored in thebusiness card information database 121 by the category and whentransferring the business card information by means of the mobile phone,it is possible to select specific information from the categories.

For instance, a user may input 017-xxxx-xxxx (receiver's phone number) 3(the specific information the user want to transfer)#(send order) intothe mobile phone. These inputted information are transferred to a mobiletelecommunication service company and the company transfers theinformation to the information management system 10 so that the transferof the business card information is accomplished. In this case, thesender may input the secret number the receiver designated, which meansthe receiver receives the business card information from the sender whoknows the secret number. As a result, the selective receipt of thebusiness card information is possible.

At this time, the information management system further includes ainformation transferring means by which it can transfer information inaddition to the business card information. For instance, the web servermay include SMS connection means so that a user can send short messageas well as the business card information. In the above embodiments, themobile communication equipments 41 a, 41 b, . . . , 41 n are connectedto the Internet via mobile telecommunication network 50 and the wapgateway 55. However, that is an example of how the mobile communicationequipments are connected to the Internet and it is obvious that allmeans to connect the mobile communication equipment with the Internetare available.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possiblefor user to distribute the user's business card information to multipleby one input of the business card information. And a receiver can sendinformation including the receiver's business card information to theselected original senders at once.

According to the present invention, automatic business card managementis possible. When the business card information change, a user canaccess to the information management system of the present invention andrenew the information, and can send the renewed information to theformer receiver. In this case, in the position of the individualreceiver, that means that the business card information provided to himor her are automatically renewed and that automatic business cardmanagement by the business card provider is accomplished.

The present invention is described with reference to the specificembodiments, but the invention is not limited there to. Only thefollowing claims will determine the scope of the invention.

1. An information management system comprising: (a) a web serverconnected to user's client computers; (b) a database server connected tothe web server including: (b1) a business card information databasestoring business card information of each user; (b2) a relation databasein which the relation of a sender and a receiver is stored when one userorders the web server to send his or her business card information toanother user, the user being the sender and the another user being thereceiver; (b3) a user database in which the senders associated with therespective receiver are stored, the senders being recognized from therelation database, and facts related to the sender which the receiverwants to record are stored on each of the sender's record in respect ofthe respective receiver; (c) means for transferring the business cardinformation of the sender to the receiver; (d) means for reverselytransferring the business card information of the receiver to the senderwhom the receiver selects after the receiver's receipt of the sender'sbusiness card information; and (e) means for recording the facts relatedto the sender the receiver wants to record, which the receiver inputs,on each of the sender's record associated with the respective receiverin the user database and displaying the recorded facts to the receiverwhen the receiver requests.
 2. The information management system as setforth in claim 1, wherein the database server further comprises a nonuser receiver database storing a receiver information and a record of asender's sending of the business card information if the receiver is notone who has stored his or her business card information on the businesscard information database.
 3. The information management system as setforth in claim 2, further comprising information transferring means totransfer information other than the business card information.
 4. Theinformation management system as set forth in claim 1, furthercomprising information transferring means to transfer information otherthan the business card information.
 5. The information management systemas set forth in claim 4 or 3, wherein the means for transferringinformation other than business card information is an E-mail server. 6.The information management system as set forth in claim 4 or 3, whereinthe means for transferring information other than business cardinformation is Short Message Service connection means connected to meansfor transferring short message to users.
 7. In a server connected touser's client computers such as mobile communication equipments orcomputers through the Internet, an information managing methodcomprising the steps of: (a) a business card information storage stepwherein business card information of each user is stored in the server;(b) a relation of a sender and a receiver storage step wherein relationof a sender and a receiver is stored in the server when one user ordersthe server to send his or her business card information to another user,the user being the sender and the another user being the receiver; (c) asender associated with a receiver storage step wherein the sendersassociated with the respective receiver are stored in the server, thesenders being recognized from the relation of the sender and thereceiver stored in the server; (d) a business card information transferstep wherein the server transfers the business card information of thesender to the receiver; (e) a reversed business card informationtransfer step wherein the server reversely transfers the business cardinformation of the receiver to the sender whom the receiver selectsafter the receiver's receipt of the sender's business card information;and (f) a facts related to the sender management step wherein factsrelated to the sender the receiver wants to record, which the receiverinputs, are recorded on each of the sender's record associated with therespective receiver, the sender's record associated with the respectivereceiver being formed in the sender associated with receiver storagestep, and the recorded facts are displayed on the receiver's clientcomputer when the receiver requests.
 8. The information managing methodas set forth in claim 7, wherein the business card information transferstep is that the server displays the business card information of thesender on the receiver's client computer.
 9. The information managingmethod as set forth in claim 8 wherein, in the reversed business cardinformation transfer step, the receiver selects from the displayedsenders on the receiver's client computer.
 10. The information managingmethod as set forth in claim 7, wherein it further comprises a groupformation and storage step where when the sender's business cardinformation is transferred to the receiver by the business cardinformation transfer step, the senders are grouped and stored accordingto the groups and the reversed receiver selection step includesselectively designating the reversed receiver from the groups.
 11. Theinformation managing method as set forth in claim 7, wherein thebusiness card information storage step includes a step of a selection ofan automatic response so that when the business card information is sentto the receiver by the business card information transfer step, thesender automatically becomes the reversed receiver and the receiver'sbusiness card information is transferred to the original sender of thereversed receiver if the receiver selected automatic response.
 12. Theinformation managing method as set forth in claim 7, further comprisingthe steps of: (a) a business card information change judgment step wherethe server compares the business card information storing date in thebusiness card information storage step and the relation establishmentdate in relation establishment step to each other and judges that thebusiness card information of the sender is changed if the business cardinformation storing date is later than the relation establishment date;and (b) a renewal of the relation establishment date step where theserver transfers the changed business card information of the sender tothe receiver's client computer and renews the relation establishmentdate if it is judged that the business card information of the sender ischanged.